Those of you who work for R.J. Reynolds will be glad to know that I did smoke a cigarette last night.

So, today I went on the Sub Seattle Tour that I intended to go on last week. And jolly good it was too. Oh, before I get onto that, look at this nice garden that’s just down the street from Heather and Andrew’s place in West Seattle:

The tour was nice. There was only three other people on the bus, so it was easy to look out of both sides of the bus as things were pointed out. I learned about some religious guy who persuaded lots of women to get naked, and was later murdered on the street; about the Wah Mee massacre; that King County, now with Martin Luther King Jr. as its logo, was originally named after some old vice president; all about Frances Farmer, and some other woman who started Seattle’s first brothel. I got to see a nice view of the city from a hill; Lake Washington; the house where Kurt Cobain lived and died; Volunteer Park, with its “Black Sun” sculpture which, apparently, inspired the Soundgarden song. It was a lot of fun. Here’s some photos.

After the tour, I went up to Seattle Art Museum. Had a wee, washed my hands, went to buy a ticket, saw it was twenty fucking dollars (the same price as MoMA) and decided to give it a miss.

Now, I know these places have to charge you something, but, really, how on earth do they expect folks to stump up that much cash constantly. The Sub Seattle tour was $30, the aquarium was $15, the Underground Tour I did last week was $15, and a trip to the top of the Space Needle was $16. I’m someone who actively likes going to see art, and even I’m not gonna pay the same as it costs to get into MoMA to see a smaller, less prestigious museum. They may have good stuff in there, but I’ll never know, cos $20 is way too much. Anyway, I’m off out now to eat some caviar.